From September 2008 until May 2009, under the leadership of the students in the fourth grade, the students at Temple Sinai collected 223.6 pounds of pantry food for Rachel Table to distribute to food pantries in Worcester .

When we needed to decide where we wanted our February and March Tzedakah money to go, the children overwhelming decided to cook a meal for a family shelter! How were we going to accomplish this?  Time was short, the kitchen was available to us for just two Saturdays and Rachel's Table does not deliver on Shabbat.  Carla Szymanski, Executive Director of Rachel's Table gave us her blessing to do the project on Shabbat if we would deliver it ourselves.  What to do?  I emailed the parents and within seconds of my clicking the "send" button, parents started to reply that they were willing to help in any possible way.

On April 4th, the 4th graders prepared and delivered a meal to the residents of Shepherd’s Place One.  The children, with the help of parents, baked stuffed shells topped with pasta sauce and shredded cheese, mixed a large tossed salad, washed and hulled strawberries, and baked brownies which they delivered to the residents of Shepherd's Place One.  The total weight of the meal, to the best of our estimate, was 35 pounds.   We also delivered 42 pounds of food to Shepherd’s Place One for their pantry.

In addition to collecting pantry food and preparing and delivering a meal to the shelter, the fourth grade contributed $74.30 to Rachel's Table's Milk Fund. The children received the SQUASH HUNGER AWARD from Rachel's Table.